Wildcats Drop Road Match to No. 22 Buckeyes

The Kentucky women’s tennis team (3-2) dropped a 4-1 match on the road in Columbus after mounting a comeback in singles, but the No. 22 Ohio State Buckeyes (2-1) prevailed on the fourth court for the win.

In doubles, Ohio State earned the point by taking wins on courts three and one. Danielle Wolf/Emma DeCoste def. Brianna Tuloch/Diana Tkachenk 6-2 after two breaks of serve decided the match. On court one, which was the clinching court in doubles, Anna Sanford/Shiori Fukuda def. Mami Adachi/Emily Fanning 6-1. Those two results gave Ohio State a 1-0 lead headed into singles.

In singles, Kentucky’s deficit grew to 3-0 when singles wins for OSU came on the bookend courts with straight-set wins. On court one, Justina Mikulskyte dropped a 6-3, 6-1 decision and on the sixth court, Brianna Tulloch dropped a pair of 6-2 sets to give the Buckeyes a 3-0 lead.

Kentucky would then dig deep and force the match to go the distance on three different courts. Diana Tkachenko got Kentucky on the board with the Wildcats only straight-sets win of the day with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Emma DeCoste. That would close the OSU gap to just a 3-1 lead and UK fighting on the other three courts in three-set matches.

Ohio State would go on to clinch the match on court four as Lesedi Jacobs fell 6-2, 1-6, 6-1. That win gave OSU the fourth point it needed to clinch the match and improve to 2-1 on the young season.

There were two matches that were unfinished, and both were breaking UK’s way at the point of clinch. On court two, No. 80 Shiori Fukuda was in a battle with UK’s Emily Fanning with Fanning leading 2-0 and up a break in the decisive set.

Just one court away on court three, Mami Adachi was in a dogfight with Olivia Sneed as the match was stopped in the third set when the Buckeyes clinched the match on court four.

Kentucky returns to the court on Sunday against Baylor at the Boone Tennis Center at 10 a.m. ET from Lexington. UK is now 2-2 on the year with Thursday’s result.